When They Win, You Win: Facebook Contesting Platforms Bring In Leads

What’s the one thing that will bring in new leads, increase engagement and reach and expand your social media followers email database? Contesting on Facebook. Ok, great – so how do you do it? Because it’s not as simple as throwing up a post on your feed and awarding a prize to the 20th person to “like” it. Facebook has some pretty intricate terms of service regarding contests and the last thing you need is to run one that goes against those terms. In order to comply with Facebook’s contesting rules, you’ll need to run your contest through a third party platform. Here’s a brief overview of two of the more popular and easy-to-use Facebook contesting platforms, ShortStack and Woobox.

First, a quick rundown of what a Facebook contest looks like: Proper Facebook contests live on apps that appear along the side of your company’s page, as well as at the top, under your cover photo. These contests often ask entrants for contact information – at the very least an email address – in order to enter. Prizes can be awarded through random selection or judged based on merit, like in a photo or essay contest.

ShortStack

ShortStack is a flexible contesting platform, with the ability to integrate contesting onto different web platforms, a variety of design features (i.e. widgets, templates and themes) and its fully functional URL capabilities. ShortStack users can connect their contests with RSS, MailChimp, Twitter, YouTube and other third party web platforms, increasing their potential exposure and number of contest entrants. With more than 30 widgets, 70 themes and 100 templates to choose from, ShortStack offers a seemingly unlimited number of creative solutions for contests and sweepstakes. Finally, each ShortStack campaign has a fully functional URL, so users can directly install their contest on Facebook, or their campaign can stand alone as a microsite. ShortStack’s multiple display options allow for additional customization and coverage for contests or sweepstakes.

Woobox

Woobox, another contesting and promotion app, offers users the option to create coupons, sweepstakes, deals and rewards, photo and video contests, polls, quizzes and Pinterest “PinToWins” options. This platform’s strengths include the option to target groups through deals and easy access to statistics. Each promotion details the specified contest stats, including entries, visits and shares. From a user standpoint, Woobox  is an intuitive, easily navigable site with simple templates that display cleanly on social media pages. If users don’t have unlimited time to create customizable contests, Woobox is an excellent alternative to other contesting platforms.

And the Winner Is…

Both Woobox and ShortStack make social contesting much easier. Both platforms comply with the Facebook terms of service, and both can help you create very attractive campaigns and contests with little HTML skill or training. They are both equally effective at acquiring the personal details of all the visitors who take part in the contest, allowing you to grow your fan base much faster, engage and delight your followers and bring in new leads who are interested in what your business can do for them.